382 



ACCOUNT OF A BELUGA 



ties. The most similar I have seen to the blubber 

 of this animal is the adipose substance, or the green 

 fat, of turtle. 



Tongue, Alimentary Canal, §c. 



In its general appearance, the tongue was simi- 

 lar, in many respects, to that of a great number of 

 fishes ; short and thick ; situated far back in the 

 mouth ; fixed down to a given position ; and with 

 little or no freedom of motion. 



The oesophagus, when very moderately inflated, 

 was twenty-one inches in circumference ; and its far- 

 ther extremity, where it was approaching towards 

 the stomach, was lined with a coat as white as milk, 

 of a brittle texture, and somewhat like that which 

 lines the cardiac extremity of the stomach of a 

 horse. 



The stomachs were four ; and the white coat lin- 

 ing the last part of the oesophagus was continued 

 through the whole of the first stomach, exhibiting 

 every where numbers of rugae. Before I saw it, it 

 had been separated by putrefaction, from which cir- 

 cumstance it was removed almost entire, and pre- 

 served in spirits, where it still continues to retain 

 its rugae. The central coat of the second stomach, 

 was of a brownish colour, not separable from the one 

 peripherad, but raised into a number of tumours or 

 eminences by extricated air, though the cellular 



